2007-05-26
Judging merely by its cover, its title and the band's name "Goodbye Is When The Casket Closes" is an album bound to be a symphonic black metal/goth metal album, but from the second you hit "Play" and up until this 7 track EP ends you get a completely different picture painted by a young metalcore band from Nova Scotia, Canada.
Rather than melodic, synth-carpeted and classically built songs with a famale operatic vocalist and a male deep growler we get a stripped down low-tech street-hardcore-like bass/drum sound, Swedish death metal influenced guitar riffs and a vocalist (Josh Hogan) who's screaming ranges from sing-a-long gutsy screams to early thrash throatiness to near death growls, and backup vocals in the form of some shouts and near nu-metal spoken lines by guitarist Brian Jones; Altogether the vocals and rhythm section can be associated more with Hardcore, while the guitars originate from Swedish death metal. This is far from the melodic metalcore bands with whiny, clean vocals, and isn't exactly brutal deathcore either - this is much closer to the roots, much more metallic hardcore than "metalcore", is a sense.
"
Obsession" opens this half-hour ride with well-done dual guitar riffing, very Swedish and very accurate, and blasts its way up until a short bass break, tagging Orchid's Curse as not only a senseless metal machine but rather a standout incorporating some progressive death elements between chugs. More of this can be found in "Secure The Insecure", where Hogan's and Jones's vocals work great on top of each other (nice catchy chorus too), and drummer Bobby Webb really shines.
The aforementioned guitar work isn't too original but still the compositions are superb ("
Mark The Day", "Obsession"), having less breakdowns and more dynamics. Regarding the rhythm section – some of the bass lines are your "follow the guitar lead line" rather than just playing root notes (notice the awesome lines in "Suckerpunch"), which is a big plus on my scale.
This debut EP may by ultra generic – but it works. Main influences probably include
Refused and
Pantera among other, meaning this is a crossover between thrash, hardcore and death metal. "Goodbye Is When The Casket Closes" can be found in the good side of new-school, mostly due to the respect it shares to the oldschool. Best cut here is probably the
title track, where Josh Hogan really puts his throat out and the prog-death chorus adds great volume. Mostly Orchid's Curse suffer from their own DIY production, for the guitars could've been better if only they where sharper and less fuzzy, and the drum…oh, those hollow drums…could've made the difference between sinking and skyrocketing in tracks like "
Behind The Skin", "Style Bleeds" (a great frantic finish) and even in the title track itself. It doesn't take a spotless production to make crushing metal release, but it does take proper production to highlight a band so it could slice through and stand out of the rest of the hundreds of bands in the "core" swamp, even if Canada's swamp isn't as flooded and the US's. For a debut EP this isn't bad, and sure raises expectations for a full-length; let's hope that unlike the already proved "Don't judge a book by its cover", the phrase "The greater the expectation, the bigger the letdown" will be left an unverified cliché.
Ofer Vayner
